On the Adhesion of the Particles of Water, etc. 291 



sewing-needle with a pair of pincers, which I introduced 

 below the ether, where, holding it horizontally at a small 

 distance from the surface of the water, I let it fall. The 

 needle descended to the water, and there floated on its 

 surface. 



Experiment No. 2. Having melted some tin, I poured 

 it into a spherical wooden box, and, shaking it strongly, 

 the metal in cooling was reduced to powder, which was 

 then sifted. 



On examining this powder with a magnifier, it ap- 

 peared composed of small spherules of different sizes ; 

 but these spherules were too small to be distinguished 

 by the naked eye. 



I took up on the point of a spatula a very small 

 quantity of this metallic powder, and poured it gently 

 from the height of a quarter of an inch on to the surface 

 of the ether which rested upon the water in the glass. 



The powder descended wholly through the ether, and 

 when it arrived at the surface of the water, it remained 

 floating. 



Experiment No. 3. Having poured a large drop of 

 mercury into a china plate, I broke it into a great num- 

 ber of small spherules. 



In order to take up and convey these small spherules 

 one by one, I made a small tool or shovel out of a piece 

 of brass wire, five inches long, and about one twentieth 

 of an inch in diameter, bent to a right angle at one 

 of its extremities. This bent part was about a quar- 

 ter of an inch long, and was hammered flat, sharpened, 

 and made a little concave. 



By means of this tool I took up a small spherule of 

 mercury, about one sixtieth of an inch in diameter, which 

 I carefully conveyed into the stratum of ether to the 



